As the Spring season begins to take shape, I am looking to
shed not only my Winter skin, but also the dead weight of the previousseason from my tresses. A new beginning; aesthetically speaking that is. 2009 is proving to be a year of change(s); some welcome; whilst naturally, others are starting to show their true nature: cumbersome. I wish to rid myself of the 'heavies' of my life. I consider myself to be an emotionally weighted person...and yearn for a lightness of being. How exactly one acquires this, I have no idea. I reckon the best option for someone like myself, is to mate with someone who embodies this lightness, and therefore an equilibrium of our two natures will be established. I am reminded of Kundera's spin on Nietzsche's Eternal return, and how Kundera described lightness as a state in which nothing in our lives was ever repeated; that our very existence was fragile in nature because nothing we ever did would affect, or impact future generations...he deemed a life marked by lightness as insignificant, and not worth living at all. Hence the title of his novel 'The unbearable lightness of being'. I tend to disagree with Kundera, as I do not perceive anything unbearable in a life not repeated...I rather think it's a romantic notion; to live out ones life where every single action occurs only once, and will not be continuously regurgitated/reincarnated...no enduring mark on future generations, no apparent legacy to be left behind. The more realistic view, is that of Nietzsche: "the idea that an eternal recurrence of blind, meaningless variation—chaotic, pointless shuffling of matter and law—would inevitably spew up worlds whose evolution through time would yield the apparently meaningful stories of our lives." The act of turning meaningless to meaning... that is, after all, what we are seeking to do... is it not?
Don't know much about Nietzsche, though I do remember once seeing some graffitti. Someone had written: "God is dead - Nietzsche", and next to it someone else had put: "Nietzsche is dead - God". Then there were the immortal words of the philosophers' drinking song in Monty Python: "there's nothing Nietzsche/ couldn't teach yer/ about the raising of the wrist". Then, there was the opening of "2001. A Space Odyssey" - "Also Sprach Zarathustra". Come to think of it, I know quite a lot about Nietsche! Though not as much as you. Hope this doesn't lower the tone too much. Good luck with the blog!
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary Nietzsche wasn’t realistic at all. And indeed it is his concept of “eternal recurrence” which is romantic. He never speaks about the reality of "eternal recurrence" itself, but about the "thought of eternal recurrence".
ReplyDeleteThe majority of us will achieve nothing that will impact future generations. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s only the ego that makes this thought unbearable for many. When we accept this, then we can live our lives with a lightness of being and wake very morning with the awe of just being alive. This simple act turns meaningless into meaning. Kundera was wrong about life not being worth living. But I agree with him on one point. We should live this day well, for today is all we truly have.
Isn't that Disaster Historian a "know-it-all"!
I like Marx's elaboration on Hegel, saying that (loosely quoted) "History repeats its self, the first time as tragedy, then as farce".
ReplyDeleteIt was slightly tongue in cheek I think, but to me it recognizes the cyclical nature of history, doomed when one takes it too seriously, confusing the passage of time as progress. The rescue then comes in a balance of shedding the past while learning from it- it is not progress (but that's not a bad thing): each day we are born anew from the rubble of the past.